“Sure.” She took a breath before launching into the three sentences she’d rehearsed in the car this morning. “I filed the paperwork this morning. I’ll send you the link. You need to e-sign your part and we’ll be divorced thirty-one days after it’s processed.”
He hesitated again, but not for nearly long enough. “What about custody?”
Leigh felt her resolve start to crumble. If she talked to him about Maddy, she would end up on the floor again. “Play that out, Walter. We do a contested divorce. We go to mediation or you put me in front of a judge. I try to get visitation and then what, you file a motion stating that I’m a danger to my child?”
He said nothing, which was a form of confirmation.
“I intentionally and willfully murdered a man,” she said, reminding him of his words last night. “You wouldn’t want me connecting another teenage girl with a goddam rapist.”
If he had a response, Leigh wasn’t going to hear it. She ended the call. She placed the phone face down on the table. The Hollis Academy crest glittered on the back. Leigh traced her fingers around the outline. The sight of her bare finger caught her out. Her wedding ring was in the soap dish she kept by her kitchen sink. Leigh had not taken it off since they’d left Chicago.
Please accept the gift of this beautiful girl. I know that no matter what happens, you will both always and forever keep her happy and safe.
She used the back of her hand to rub the tears out of her eyes. How was she going to tell her sister that she had fucked up everything? Over twenty-four hours had passed since Leigh had walked Callie back to Phil’s. They hadn’t spoken to each other once they’d left the Waleskis’ house. Callie had been shaking uncontrollably. Her teeth were chattering the same way they’d chattered the night that Buddy had died.
Leigh had forgotten what it felt like to walk beside her sister in the street. It was difficult to describe the feeling of no longer being a solitary adult, only responsible for the workings of your own body. The anxiety she felt around Callie—the fear for her safety, for her emotional well-being, for her physical health, for her not to trip over her own damn feet and fall and break something—reminded Leigh of what it felt like when Maddy was a little girl.
The responsibility for her child had brought incomprehensible joy. With Callie, Leigh felt endlessly burdened.
“Leigh?” Liz knocked on the door as she entered. The look on her face said that something was wrong. Leigh didn’t have to ask for an explanation.
Andrew Tenant stood behind Liz. His mask hung from one ear. An angry, deep gash was engraved along his jawline. White butterfly strips pinned down a torn part of his earlobe. He had what looked like a giant hickey on his neck. And then he came closer and Leigh could see teeth marks.
Leigh’s immediate response wasn’t concern or outrage. It was a single, shocked laugh.
Andrew’s jaw set. He turned to shut the door, but Liz was already closing it behind her.
He waited until they were alone. He took off his mask. He pulled out a chair. He sat down. He told Leigh, “What did I tell you about laughing at me?”
She waited to feel the same, visceral fear that her body always conjured in response to his presence. But her skin wasn’t crawling. The hairs on the back of her neck were not at attention. Her fight or flight had somehow deactivated. If this was the result of Walter’s fatal wound, then she was all the better for it.
She asked Andrew, “What happened to you?”
His eyes went back and forth across her face as if she were a book that he could read.
He sat back in his chair. He rested his hand on the table. “I went for a jog after you left my house yesterday morning. Physical exercise is an approved part of my bail conditions. Someone mugged me. I tried to fight back. Unsuccessfully, as it turns out. They stole my wallet.”
Leigh didn’t comment on the fact that he’d already taken his shower when she’d arrived at his house. “Do you always jog with your wallet?”
His hand went flat to the table. There was no sound, but she was reminded of the power in his body. The fight or flight slowly stirred at the base of her spine.
She asked, “Is there something else I should know?”
“How’s Callie doing?”
“She’s fine. I talked to her this morning.”
“Is that right?” His tone of voice had turned intimate. Something had changed.
Leigh did not attempt to understand how she’d managed to cede some of her power. She could feel it in her body, that familiar visceral reaction that told her a shift had occurred. “Is there anything else?”